Work Smarter, Not Harder: Ways to Make Your Event More Efficient

By Megan Tramonte

Mr. Webster defines efficiency as “the ability to do something or produce something without wasting materials, time or energy.” For event organizers, the most valuable resource is time. We always need more of it. Efficiency comes in the form of technology, your people, and your processes. Overhauling these all at once is probably not wise, but selecting a couple of ideas to implement can be very beneficial in efficient time management.

Tech Tools

Getting organized is the first step for an event planner before efficiency can permeate through the whole event. The following programs are just some of the many on the market that can streamline processes and make an event run smoother.

Google Keep

• Make simple checklists and notes and set reminders for them.

• Share your lists with people and access from anywhere using the Google Keep app.

• Change the color of lists to color code related items.

Airtable

• Database program that allows files to be added, change the status of things, makes notes, link out to websites, and sort items.

• Data can be turned into a calendar, Gantt chart, grid, form, etc.

• Useful for managing the progress of signage, vendor contracts, print items, social media campaigns, and more.

• Completely customizable.

Doodle

• Online scheduling program that is great for arranging meetings that have a large number of participants with varying availability.

• Polls potential participants regarding meeting dates and times.

• Participants select which dates and times work best for them.

• Doodle selects the date and time that is most popular and emails participants.

Basecamp

• Online project management program.

• Create projects and corresponding to-do lists.

• Links Calendar with To-Do Lists.

• Collaborates projects and to-dos with people inside and outside your team.

Dropbox & Google Drive

• File saving & sharing programs that use “the cloud”.

• Integrates with desktops enabling access to files as though they reside on the local computer and not the cloud.

• File accessibility and file sharing anywhere through the Dropbox app or Google Drive app.

• Google Drive provides access to Google Docs, Google Sheets, and Google Slides for free. These are the Google versions of the Microsoft programs Word, Excel, and PowerPoint.

Dividing Your Site

Dividing the event site into zones may be the single most important thing event managers can do for the efficiency of their event. Zones are a way to divide a festival site into sections that are easily distinguishable from one another and allow for a way to distribute work evenly among volunteers or committee members.

At ArtFest Fort Myers, there are 3 zones each with their own color. The number of zones and their colors can be whatever works for the event. Once zones and zone colors are determined, everything going to the festival site needs to be “branded” as such. And that means everything! If there is a bin of supplies that is going to the VIP club in zone 3, that bin should have green tape around it and be labeled “VIP.” If you have tables that go to zone 2, they should have yellow tape and be labeled for the zone and area. I go so far as to buy ladders and dollies in the colors of our zones.

Committee leaders are assigned to each zone in the festival and these leaders are responsible for everything in their zone. By assigning people to a specific zone, responsibilities are evenly divided into smaller, more manageable areas of the festival. Furthermore, if the whole site is branded by zones, it becomes really easy to give directions to volunteers by asking them to only grab the yellow labeled bins or only take the red labeled furniture.

​The People of Your Event

Events are nothing without the people behind the scenes. At ArtFest, there is a steering committee of about 75 people. Each person has a very specific job to do. When the work is divided evenly, it takes the strain off of any one person.

Committee members know how to do their job better than anyone, especially if they have been part of the committee for many years. The downside, however, is that they often don’t know other areas of the event. If someone gets sick, other committee members are forced to fill in. For this reason, everyone needs a backup. At least two committee persons per area is ideal. That way, in the event of an alien abduction, the event still functions without a hitch.

Even if you have a great team behind you, there are still some things that can be, and perhaps should be, contracted out. We all know how exhausting it is moving heavy tables and equipment around after a week of grueling setup. Consider hiring day labor throughout setup week and festival weekend to help eliminate some of the physical as well as mental strain. An added bonus is that they are also covered by Worker’s Compensation which is an important protection for your organization as well as the day laborers. The fact of the matter is, you always need people who can come in fresh and ready to work so you can conserve your energy and make it through the event.

Another reason to outsource services is that often the job is just too tedious. A perfect example of this is fire extinguishers. ArtFest used to have someone specifically in charge of driving to get 50 fire extinguishers and setting them up one by one. It took an entire day. Now, a company who specializes in fire safety equipment at events is contracted for the job. They come at a specified time and function independently. They do a better job than when we did it ourselves and we know it is up to the fire marshall’s standards.

Yes, contracted vendors cost money but time is a currency too and sometimes it’s worth working a service into your budget.

Festival Binders

You probably have a binder or notebook of information for yourself but you might not have binders for your volunteers or committees. Everyone who is in charge of something needs a binder. Binders have all the information they need to work the event and most importantly serve as a backup in case a committee member gets “abducted by aliens”. The information doesn’t do anyone any good if it is only in one person’s brain.

Binder contents can be tailored to your event but these are things that you should consider including:

• pens, pencils, scissors, and assorted binder clips in a zipper pouch

• location of storage vans and who has the keys

• contact info for other people in the committee or even for other people working the event in other areas

• equipment operation instructions

• event timeline specific to the job the committee is doing

• detailed layouts for the area that the committee is working on

• sign setup instructions with mocked up photos of how signs and banners are to be hung.

• schedule of volunteers signed up for a shift with that specific committee

• inventory list of all of the supplies that the committee has been given

• emergency plan that is easy to read and understand

Planning & Purchasing Your Inventory

Events need a lot of “stuff.” Consequently, planning and maintaining supply inventory can be one of the most chaotic parts of planning an event. You need to stay on top of it or else you end up wasting money on excess purchases, under purchasing due to overestimating leftover inventory, or simply not buying the things you truly need.

To keep things organized, start by making an Excel sheet of every single supply for each area of the event. Make Quantity columns for “Wanted On Site”, “Prior Year Post Inventory’’, and “Current Year Shopping”. Fill in your quantities of how much you need to have on site and how much of an item you have left over from last year. Let Excel do the math for how much you need to purchase by setting up the formula in the “Current Year Shopping” column and copy that formula all the way down the column.

Once you have the quantities of how much you need to buy, you can make your cumulative shopping list. The first year you do this it will be a beast, but it makes life easier down the road.

Organizing Inventory at the Warehouse

Once all of the supplies have been purchased, it’s time to pack it up. Each area of the festival should have its own set of supply bins. These bins contain everything that the committee for that area will need. Things like blue tape, zip ties, zip tie cutters, binder clips, pens, trash bags, paper towels, decor items, etc. Make sure that you provide everything that they need and plenty of it so that they do not have to waste time going to look for it somewhere else. Clear bins work best because you can easily see what is inside without opening it.

Each bin should be labeled on at least 2 sides with the corresponding zone color so you know what area it belongs in. The front and back of every bin has a color-coded label with the area the bin goes to and tape around the bin in the zone color. Each zone of the festival has its own section in the warehouse where all of the bins are grouped together.

Transporting Your Inventory

Now that your inventory is packed, you need to transport it. You never want to transport your inventory unorganized. If it gets to the site unorganized, things go missing and end up somewhere they don’t belong. You waste more time at the site sorting through everything than if you just organized it ahead of time.

First, get your warehouse staged by zones. Every single thing that belongs in Zone 1 needs to be grouped together. Supply bins, signs, furniture, flags, all of it. Load your vehicles with everything you staged by zone. Cargo Vans and box trucks are how we transport our supplies but storage pods work too. Each zone gets its own van. And if you don’t have need for a full van for each, you can consolidate to putting supplies for nearby zones in the same van. Or use smaller vehicles for each zone. Make sure you label the vans/trucks with their zone and color. Tape a laminated sign on the front and back windows. This makes it clear which van goes where.

A helpful tip when loading your vans is to put what you will need first closest to the door. You don’t want your dolly buried in the back because you need it first when unloading the van. It helps to make a list ahead of time of the things you know you will need first so you can make sure they are closest to the door.

After everything is loaded, you can drive the vans to the site and park them in the zone that they belong to. Vehicles work great for this reason because you have control of when and where you take them and you can easily move them if they end up in an inconvenient spot. Once the vans are parked, they serve as storage of extra supplies for volunteers and committee members during the event.

Efficiency is all about finding ways to make things work better for you and give you back your precious time. So, if you have a need for something, make it happen. Whether that means hiring someone, changing up a process, or adding a committee job. Find a way to make it work for you. There is always a solution. But you can’t do it all. Put the onus on other people. Work hard ahead of time with detailed preparation and then hand it all off to your team and trust that they’ve got it. And if all else fails, just remember that we are event planners and we are in the business of fun, so don’t take things too seriously.

Megan Tramonte is a graduate of Florida Gulf Coast University and has a degree in Resort and Hospitality Management with a concentration in Event Management. She is currently the Associate Director of ArtFest Fort Myers, Southwest Florida’s largest weekend event. In her free time, Megan’s travels have taken her to various art shows across the country. She is a chalk street painting hobbyist and participates as an artist in the Lake Worth Street Painting festival. Her experience as an artist and event organizer gives her a unique perspective into the world of art shows.

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